Jump Start
by aka no ame
Summary: Jiraiya is dead, and the leaf village needs a new agent to infiltrate Akatsuki headquarters. No longer can they take the risk of losing that connection so the new informant must become a member of the infamous group. ItaSaku


Jump Start

DISCLAMER!!!!Do not own Naruto or any affiliated trademarks, logos…etc.

Summary: Jiraya is dead, and the leaf village needs a new agent to infiltrate Akatsuki headquarters. No longer can they take the risk of losing that connection so the new informant must become a member of the infamous group. ItaSaku

**Chapter 1**

She rested in the shade of one of the giant forest monarchs as she awaited the fateful meeting that would begin her new assignment. As she studied the dappling pattern of leaf shadows on her skin she thought about the beginning.

3 years of signing her soul over to try and become the ultimate medic nin. 3 years of complete servitude towards her village. 3 years of completely erasing her emotions so it wouldn't hurt when she had to do a morally evil yet necessary thing. Becoming an ultimate weapon with her healer's hands.

_1 week previously_

Sakura stood to a stiff attention in front of the 5th hokage. Just returned from a mission she was still caked in the mud of the trail, It had been a diplomatic mission to reinforce Konohagakure's alliance with Sand.

It was a show of how invaluable Sakura had grown to be to the hidden leaf village, and how influential. Going from being one of the weakest kunoichi in the entire village to establishing diplomatic relations with one of Konoha's greatest ally, It didn't hurt either that she was close friends with many people in high places.

Tsunade sighed, It was going to be a terrible loss once she assigned this new mission, probably the last one she would ever give to her beloved apprentice, yet a necessary one. This time she would have to put her feelings underwraps and do the impossible.

"Mission report please" Tsunade asked. Sakura shifted her gaze from the hokage's young face to a spot 3 feet to the left and 4 feet above the hokage's shoulder.

" I arrived at the Konohagakeru ebassy at 01200 hours, I met with the kazekage to discuss the trade relations point you wanted me to ask at around 2 hours after my arrival. He agreed to our proposal of increasing tariff rates in case of a national emergency on both ends and an increase in the export of minerals, and manufactured goods. He in turn asks for more trade of agricultural goods since it is the dry season at this time." She said in a carefully neutral voice.

"Very good then, I will send Kotetsu with the proper papers shortly." Tsunade said. Sakura had a questioning look in her eyes, the hokage always sent her to Suna. It was always her job to run these errands when no pressing missions were available.

"Shishou? Should I not be going on the trip?" Sakura asked feeling a little cautious, she could sense something big about to happen.

"Sakura… I have a mission for you, If this one was on the record it would be an S-ranked one. This is probably the last one you will ever receive from me for quite some time." Tsunade stated carefully.

"Yes, shishou." Sakura said apprehensively. " I am prepared for it.".

"Very well then, Sakura you have heard of our spy inside Akatsuki headquarters correct? Well Jiraya was the connection to that informant, now that he is gone we don't have anyway to get messages. I was never briefed as to who our informant was, only Jiraya knew." Here her shishou paused. " I need you to infiltrate Akatsuki and find out who our spy is, then replace Jiraya as our connection to the headquarters. Unfortunately you will have to remain an Akatsuki until they can be neutralized."

"Does this mean I will have to become a missing nin then?" Sakura asked, she kept her face perfectly straight as she struggled internally with her emotions. She knew she had no choice in the matter, she would betray her village for its own sake; to protect it with the information she would gather.

"Yes, no one can know except you and I what is happening and why, not even your teammates." Tsunade's mask lifted a little here as she watched her students internal struggle. Over the years Sakura had perfected her control to become the perfect shinobi… in every aspect of the meaning. Loyalty to ones village, repression of all emotion, and the ability to kill on command. However this would mean going back on her most important values.

"I accept this mission, when do I begin." She asked resigned to her fate. It upset Tsunade to see her beloved apprentice accept the most difficult thing she could ever ask of her. "Immediately, I will give you a 1 day headstart before I give the news of your betrayal to the village."

"Yes Shishou, I will do my best for your sake… and for the village." Sakura said, as she said this she slowly untied her hitae-ate from her pink locks of hair, Gazing at the symbol of all she held dear. Taking a kunai from her leg holster she drew a deep scratch in the metal, severing all ties with her village. "Goodbye shishou, I will not fail you." She bowed deeply, afterwards retying her headband.

She lept out the window without looking back, so her shishou couldn't see the pain she had unearthed in her eyes. She felt all her raw unused emotions flooding back. _"Damn, Its all falling apart, everything" _were her thoughts as she jumped from roof top to roof top of the village.

No one noticed as she touched down in front of the roof of her apartment. No one really noticed her anymore, or if they did it was with fear and awe. Her reputation had grown widely, and it wasn't necessarily good.

She jumped to her balcony on the second floor of the building. She never used the front entrance anymore unless she had visitors. Opening the glass sliding door she shoulderd off her pack to get the supplies she would need for the uncertain trip ahead of her.

Akatsuki only ever accepted the most dangerous and infamous missing nins into their organization, and to get noticed, despite her reputation would take a while. She packed for 1 month.

Tsunade would make sure to announce to the world an elaborate story about, her breaking her loyalty to the village. Something big and horrendously shocking. Maybe a murder or to to throw in.

Looking for the last time at her bedroom with the hideous pink sheets Naruto had gotten for her birthday, and the sad little droopy plant Kakashi had dumped on her; a severe homesickness flooded her. The unexpected emotion threw her for a loop as she struggled to cope. Memories of unrelated and horrible events flooded her before she could stuff them back to where they belonged

Blood, the blood of the child she had had to kill coated her hands again. The look of the child never to awaken from its crib stabbed her sharply. The feeling of a torturers minstrations as they tried to force information out of her. Ninja's dying between her hands as she struggled to save them….

These images ravaged her as she forced herself to close her door for the final time and walk down the street and out the gates, the guards didn't even look at her as she forced her feet through the exit of her haven. And then ran to the forest to meet her fate.

_Present Time_

The sun had sunk below the horizon during Sakura's musings. The nocturnal animal noises started up, and a chill started to creep into the air as the earth cooled. She waited for the people who would meet her.

The invitation had been extremely cliché, a man in a bar had come up to her after her last completed mission for an extremely rich contractor of missing nin. He had been extremely plain, a face you would forget in an instant. He had whispered to her that akatsuki had been looking her way ever since word of her betrayal had reached the outside world. Go to this place, a couple miles outside of town and wait for night fall. Then the official propositon would be given.

Sighing, Sakura stood up to stretch her legs. It had been hours since nightfall and her patience was beginning to run out. A sudden silence fill the clearing as all the small sounds of a forest at night quieted.

They appeared before her out of nowhere, no puff of displaced air that usually accompanied a teleportation jutsu, and no gust of wind that said fast movement. They just were. Two Akatsuki stood in front of her, ones she knew.

A tall blue shark faced man with a monstrous sword stapped to his back, Hoshigake Kisame was intimidating in a 'beat you into a small unrecognizable pulp kind of way' however the man beside him was much more so if you knew who he was. Uchiha Itachi stared out at Sakura with bloody sharingan eyes, a quiet nervousness spread through her in the face of the man who had commited the Uchiha massacre.

'Now to take the plunge' she thought as she slowly faced the two men. And waited for one of them to speak.

"Haruno Sakura" the Uchiha stated. " Do you accept the invitation?"

**End Chapter 1**

Yay! Finally the first chapter is completed. R&R please. I do not have a beta as of yet, so if you would like to be one just ask me. :)


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